News and updates from the guys at buyatankard.com

Before the Victorian era, tankards were made from pewter, most commonly with glass bottoms, and occasionally with lids, like the German stein. Served at public and ale houses across Britain, the tankard is a symbol of the everyman’s history. Numerous quirks, trivia and legends abound regarding what was once a familiar sight in this country.

Pewter tankards, much to the dismay of contemporary publicans, used to contain high quantities of lead, which caused lead poisoning and gout in those who supped from them. The lead poisoning was worst in areas of high-cider intake, as the acidic quality inherent in cider leached into the lead. Clay tankards were very quickly made once this problem was identified!

Lead poisoning wasn’t the only thing to fear in a public house of yesteryear by any stretch. The glass bottom of the traditional tankard has two purposes, according to the legend. The first was, believe it or not, to ensure that you weren’t accidentally (and against your will) conscripted into the army. If a recruiter bought you a pint in those days, and slipped a shilling into the bottom of it, accepting the pint was accepting the ‘King’s shilling’ meaning you had been successfully recruited into the army. This is, of course, where the expression ‘taking the King’s shilling’ originated. The second, and slightly less historically centred, reason for the glass bottom of a tankard was purportedly so you could see a fight coming through your glass…

You’ll be pleased to hear that modern tankards are now made from lead free pewter, and can be personalised and engraved in many cases, making them the perfect gift. In keeping with tradition, these personalised tankards can be gifted to someone to commemorate a special day, such as a 21st or a graduation. Many people opt to have them made in memory of a beloved deceased. For a real piece of British history, you’ll find that the answer lies at the bottom of a pint.

We are very happy to announce that we can now provide a stock Clan Crest engraving for any of the engraveable items across our websites.

AScottish crest badge, commonly called a clan crest, is a heraldic badge which was worn to show one’s allegiance to an individual or one’s membership to a specific Scottish clan. Crest badges are commonly referred to as “clan crests”, and are normally worn by members of Scottish clans. You can see a sample of the Macdonald crest below:

Obviously, as there is a strong Highland connection with clan crests and kiltwear then it was a natural progression for us to supply this kind of service. We have been working closely with the various suppliers and engravers that we are partnered with and as a result you can now choose from a large selection of designs to further customise your tankard.

We have a range of hip flasks and tankards that are perfect for this kind of customisation. Our pewter tankards are tailor made for engraving choices; whether that be text engraving, logo engraving or obviously clan crest engravings. Our flasks and tankards are provided by some of the UK’s top pewter makers and they use top of the range engraving equipment to complete any engraving requests.

For the very low price of £5.64 you can have any of our available clan crest engraved onto any product and we are more than happy to provide a digital copy to you of how the image looks. Please see our Engraving Information section for further information and also to see an example of the MacDonald clan crest (obvious choice).

So if you would like to show your clan allegiance then what better way than to have your family crest added to any of our metal products. We can now supply over 140 Scottish based crests from Anderson to Young and all the way in between; so if your family has a crest then it’s a good bet we have it!